IMAGINE A WORLD…

By Steve Buckstein

Imagine a world where we buy our groceries in government stores. We can only shop at the store nearest our house.
If we want to shop somewhere else, we're forced to move our family into another neighborhood--if we can afford it.

Do you think lawmakers should be exempt from PERS?

PORTLAND - Oregon's newest lawmakers will have to decide by Feb. 12 whether they want to participate in a state retirement system already $14 billion in the red.

Only three of the state's 90 state lawmakers opted out of the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System or other state retirement options last year despite an obvious conflict of interest: lawmakers benefit from a system they control.